About us
A great specialization
built over time
Benefitting from 60 years of acquired
experience, Salmoiraghi is today the
internationally reputed leader
in automated systems
for handling and warehousing
of man-made fibre bobbins
and textile products
Established in 1963, the Salmoiraghi Group designs, manufactures and installs a wide range of integrated systems and special equipment for automated handling and warehousing of industrial products.
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From the initial specialization in textile automation systems, Salmoiraghi evolved and diversified the company activities, applying the acquired experience and know-how to other manufacturing sectors: automotive, food, glass fibre, carbon fibre, industrial components and healthcare facilities.
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Salmoiraghi carefully analyses any particular requirement and ensures comprehensive support, all the way from the project concept phase to the commissioning of the fully operational system, and guarantees after-sales assistance throughout the system lifetime.
Our company consists of various work groups which work in synergy in order to offer custom solutions in any application field. Each department specializes in a specific automation sector. This allows having complete control of the engineering and manufacturing process while the customers benefit by obtaining fully integrated systems from a single source.
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By guaranteeing a safe and efficient product flow and a compact and fluid system configuration, we allow our customers to obtain true Total Quality. Thanks to our engineering approach, Salmoiraghi systems have always achieved success with various manufacturers around the world through significant and constantly improving quality, strong reduction of labour costs and rapid Return on Investment.
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OUR HISTORY
Company foundation
In 1963, brothers Angelo and Sandro, coming from a family with solid roots in the textile sector, used the knowledge acquired from their father and uncle – both managers of important cotton mills in Northern Italy – to start a new business in the textile machinery sector. This is a first approach in a sector undergoing great change which is facing the transition to new products. To the traditional cotton-based processes, the Italian textile industry adds the production of technological fibres obtained by means of chemical processes.
The intuition leading to success
With the development of POY (Pre-oriented Yarn) and the increase in bobbin size, new handling problems arise. A happy intuition leads to the development of a system for loading and unloading creel carts on draw-twisters. The solution meets with immediate success and is adopted by the main manufacturers (Rieter – Barmag – Zinser – Marzoli – Ishikawa – Sant’Andrea – etc.), as well as purchased directly by drawn yarn producers.
More than 500 of these systems and around 12.000 carts are fabricated during the years from 1966 to 1972. Many of these systems are still fully functional around the world today.
Continuous yarn handling
New automation concepts for the transport of textile products in the field of continuous fibres start appearing.
The idea of automatic doffing and transport of cops produced by draw-twisters is developed, leading to the installation of the automation system in the Snia Viscosa plant in Villacidro (1974), with the application on 48 draw-twisters and the implementation of an integrated process, from machine doffing through product inspection and sorting and up to automatic packing and box transport to the warehouse – all controlled and managed by a computerized system, one of the first used in the management of handling processes.
The Doffer is born
With the development of the POY (Pre-oriented Yarn) and the decline in the use of the draw-twister replaced by the continuous process, new requirements arise relating to the doffing of the bobbins which have reached considerable weights and dimensions.
In 1976 the DOFFER is born in its various versions. For the development of this product, Salmoiraghi collaborates with the main spinning machine manufacturers (Rieter – Barmag – Teijin – Cognesint).
Overhead transport: the Shuttle
The “Doffer” project leads to the development of the “overhead bobbin transport” concept and the implementation of the electrically powered “Shuttle” vehicle travelling on overhead rails, aimed at solving the problems of elevated transport along adaptable routes.
At the ITMA 1983 exhibition in Milan, Salmoiraghi presents the industrial Doffer which remains, after many changes and innovations, still the undisputed market leader.
The systems for POY -NYL-BCF-TYRE CORD
In 1985, the first integrated automation system for Tyre Cord bobbins, featuring doffing (Doffer), overhead transport (Shuttle), inspection, weighing, sending to temporary storage, picking and packing, is installed in Guben (Germany).
This is the basic concept of the Salmoiraghi Handling system for continuous fibre which still represents the company core business, with countless solutions and international patents.
Doffers are developed in variants suitable for various types of products, including BCF.
In this period, which coincides with the development of continuous fibre plants in Taiwan, Salmoiraghi achieves market leadership in this sector, with over 50 automation systems installed on the island, counting among its customers the most important names (Nan Ya, FCFC, Tainan Spinning, Hualon, Shinkong, Far Eastern, Chia Hsin) for which it automates many production plants.
At the same time, the “Salmoiraghi solution” is acquired by several large Korean groups, DuPont in USA and Canada, and Sabic in Saudi Arabia.
The developments of Handling solutions
The Salmoiraghi system also proves to be useful in those places where, despite low labour costs, there is a will to elevate the production quality level. Under these circumstances, the partnership with RELIANCE in India began and is still going on successfully. We also implement automation systems for the mechanical industry and Autowarehouses, both in seismic areas (Taiwan) and Europe.
The use of anthropomorphic articulated robots makes it possible to speed up packaging operations. The automation of DuPont plants in Kinston and Cape Fear in USA, as well as plants in Belgium, Spain and Mexico takes place during the years 1997-1998.
Interesting applications are implemented in the glass fibre sector which requires original solutions due to its particular technology. The doffing, transport, intermediate storage and loading of the winding machines are fully automated in a large plant in Mexico.
The concept of the temporary storage “Carousel” system allows storing products of different types, qualities and grades, and then picking up homogeneous product lots.
In the mechanical production sector, integrated automation solutions serving production lines are specifically developed and implemented by Salmoiraghi.
The very large systems
Among the various handling applications, specific solutions for bobbins of aramid fibre, carbon fibre and derivatives are developed.
For FDY or POY lines, the Doffer system is by now a crucial complement, not only for the reduction of labour costs but also for the qualitative improvement and the possibility to track the product along its entire route, up to the end user.
LGV vehicles with special on-board equipment allow automatic doffing of textured yarn bobbins and their transfer to packaging. In the component sector, we implement both tray-based Autowarehouses with fast moving Stacker Cranes as well as pallet-based Autowarehouses for mechanical components.
The temporary storage system for bobbins evolves using pin racks handled by special Stacker Cranes, ensuring product integrity and coordinated flows.
In the automotive sector there are many automation solutions for handling different items, from entire vehicle chassis to components.
In the weaving sector: Autowarehouses and transport systems for fabric rolls.
Thanks to the development of new winding technologies in the man-made fibre sector, plant production has increased fivefold. Handling solutions evolve to meet the new requirements.
Participation in the ITMA ASIA 2012 exhibition consolidates the company success on the Chinese market.
Industry 4.0 – Technological innovation
Growth continues with the offer of cutting-edge systems that are the outcome of research into process acceleration, environmental sustainability, energy saving, quality improvement and product traceability.
In recent years, the company has evolved and diversified by applying the experience and know-how gained in automated handling and storage systems to other manufacturing sectors such as: automotive, food, glass and carbon fibres, industrial components and healthcare facilities.
In the Autowarehouse sector, advanced projects were implemented using stacker cranes up to 35 meters high and overhead transport systems with electrically powered Shuttle vehicles for handling loads from 10 to 1000 kg.
Another area of specialisation concerns vehicles with inertial guidance systems used in special applications, serving machines and production processes for which industrial installations already exist in Europe, India and China, and which represent the current line of development for new applications.
2020-To date
Despite the great difficulties for everybody, the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic has encouraged the company to make the systems ever more remotely controllable with the application of new technologies available today, such as artificial intelligence and vision, Data Analytics, Internet of Things and augmented reality as well as simulation technology (Digital Twin).
This is a continuous and exciting challenge that Salmoiraghi faces with the strength of tradition and the courage of innovation.
